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NeverarGreat said:

Lord Haseo said:

NeverarGreat said:

Alien: Covenant

My first impression after watching Prometheus was that it felt like a prelude to revelations in the next film. After watching this, I can conclude that neither Prometheus or Covenant are worth the bother. Covenant, though it has a fascinating villain, still fails to provide any answers and ends illogically.

What the Alien franchise has desperately needed is a new type of alien. We know the life cycle of the Xenomorph, so there is no longer any dread in the face of this threat, only momentary shocks due to jump scares. Also, Prometheus was a more interesting movie than Covenant for me because at least there was some nominal change in the plot structure of ‘ship gets a signal and investigates’.

Here’s an idea, Scott: Have a ship with a bunch of competent scientists and soldiers get lost in deep space, crash landing on a planet far from Earth and encountering a threat that is entirely different than the Xenomorphs or the Engineers. It’s pretty simple.

I think a shift in storytelling would make these films better than just making a new threat. Covenant tried to balance action, horror, and the philosophical elements of Prometheus to somewhat lackluster results as the latter two don’t feel nearly as present in the film. If the film had just been scarier and answered a few more questions I would have enjoyed it a lot more than I did.

That it’s not scary is a structural problem though.

Not only is it a structural problem but it’s a problem of the film makers making them seem a lot scarier than they actually were. For me this has to do with them showing the Neomorph and the Proto Xenomorph too often and showed too much of them. I prefer my my Xenomorphs to be obscured by shadows most of the time and not shown in good lighting for most of its screen time. With how good the CGI is they could strike a perfect balance in which we we see it fully and moving super fast in select moments but have it lurk in the shadows most of the time. That would give the future films a truly unnerving feeling that’s akin to Alien.

As I said, there’s negligible mystery in the Xenomorph life cycle, so we’re all just waiting for the hapless redshirts to catch on before they all bite it. We’re not learning along with them the dangers of this threat.

I actually think that the negligible mystery are the engineers as we still don’t know why they created humanity, why they changed their minds when it pertains to destroying humanity, what their civilization was like etc. In terms of the Xenomorph’s origin we have seen considerable strides as we have a fleshy version of the being we all know that is born from a facehugger both of which have acid blood. There are certain things that aren’t there like the bio-mechanical nature of the Xenomorph but we have a prototype so the film succeeds on that front in my eyes.

The other problem is the lack of answers. It’s not that we are given few answers to Prometheus, but that the person who demanded these answers is gone and with them the drive in the story to provide those answers. Therefore, the answers it does provide it provides to the audience and not to the characters in particular, making it explanation heavy while failing to satisfy our desire.

Shaw didn’t need to be in the film to provide us with answers as in the Prologue David says he learned of the Engineers ways. Sure it loses that emotional charge that stems from that primal need in humanity to ascertain the nature of all that surrounds us but as it pertains to giving your audience information about the story it’s more than sufficient. I just wanted more answers period no matter where they came from. I would have been fine with text on the end credits filling me in on whats up with the Engineers rather than being left here in a state of confusion.

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Black Sunday (1960) – 7/10

Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) – 8/10

Hidden (2016) – 6/10

Flashing Lights (1978) – 6/10

The Land Before Time III: The Time of the Great Giving (1995) – 5/10

Thor (2011) – 5/10

Run (1991) – 7/10

The Terminator (1984) – 9/10

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) – 8/10

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I saw a David Lynch movie for the first time; Eraserhead. I thought I’ve seen some weird things, but none so far have managed to create such a tense atmosphere that genuinely disturbed me. The ominous sounds, the odd quirks in how people acted and interacted with each other, the weird tangents, and overall mood of anxiety. Comedy and drama often can blend together into “Dramedy” but in this film, it’s like exotic blend of comedy, drama, and horror. Horamadey…?
Such an odd thing to judge. I didn’t quite hate it, yet I don’t quite want to watch this again, and yet I sorta like it.

I should note that this viewing this film actually gave me a headache, which is funny because Lynch has said that he got a migraine from visiting George Lucas from all the talk about Star Wars.

The Rise of Failures

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TavorX said:

Such an odd thing to judge. I didn’t quite hate it, yet I don’t quite want to watch this again, and yet I sorta like it.

That is some desperate Stockholm Syndrome shit right there.
It’s okay, just say it’s punishingly unwatchable garbage. You know damn well it is.

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Darth Id said:

TavorX said:

Such an odd thing to judge. I didn’t quite hate it, yet I don’t quite want to watch this again, and yet I sorta like it.

That is some desperate Stockholm Syndrome shit right there.
It’s okay, just say it’s punishingly unwatchable garbage. You know damn well it is.

I’m just acknowledging there’s some things to praise it for. The film set out to make the viewer feel tense and disturbed, and I’d say it did its job well. However, yeah, it’s overall not quite my kind of movie; just enjoyed the experience of viewing something wholly different of what I’m used to.

The Rise of Failures

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Eraserhead is Lynch’s funniest movie.

Body Double 3/5

Blow Out 4/5

RoboCop 5/5

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Mocata said:
Blow Out 4/5

You should check out the original British version, Blow-Up (1966).

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Eraserhead is uncomfortable. Lynch doesn’t give you anything pretty to look at. I can’t say why I liked the film, but it stuck with me.

"The other versions will disappear. Even the 35 million tapes of Star Wars out there won’t last more than 30 or 40 years. A hundred years from now, the only version of the movie that anyone will remember will be the DVD version [of the Special Edition], and you’ll be able to project it on a 20’ by 40’ screen with perfect quality. I think it’s the director’s prerogative, not the studio’s to go back and reinvent a movie." - George Lucas

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Alien Covenant general score: 8/10

Alien Covenant as an Alien film: 6/10

I hate to have to rate it on two different levels but the Space Jockey being fossilized doesn’t mesh with a plot revelation that happens in Covenant.

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Star Trek TMP

As you guys know I’m going through Trek chronologically for the first time ever.

I knew the motionless reputation, I knew Wise’s work, I knew the studio’s cash in mentality…but I didn’t quite expect this mixed bag.

This is the absolute definition of a cinematic mixed bag. It so obviously a tv pilot stretched out agonizingly to feature length and on top of that extraordinarily similar to a TOS episode I loved. Then the characterizations of the returning cast are either widow dressing or not all together there leaving the only constants for returning viewers somewhat skewed.

The redesigned ship and costumes were to me not only bland but quite awful. This combined with the slow pace really date the film more so than anything else. And that said it’s not a bad watch or ever too slow to feel annoyed or frustrated. There’s still enough good material interspersed to keep an audience going…but it’s far too little and the studio really and truly screwed TMP over royally.

The production history is insane for TMP and the fact that both Trumbull and Dykstra were brought on last minute and managed some incredible work is really amazing.
The effects make the film to a large degree, but it is Jerry Goldsmith who saves it with his incredible and huge score. He literally scores his ass off and it helps immeasurably.

All in all I liked parts of this but it misses the energy of TOS; its heart, its exuberance and most of all its inherent silliness.

But the the few seconds of Bones here and there are priceless.

The letterboxed laserdisc is fantastic btw. I was quite impressed with the matrixed surround track.

VADER!? WHERE THE HELL IS MY MOCHA LATTE? -Palpy on a very bad day.
“George didn’t think there was any future in dead Han toys.”-Harrison Ford
YT channel:
https://www.youtube.com/c/DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader

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Sougouk said:

You should check out the original British version, Blow-Up (1966).

Yep it’s another one in the big movie queue!

All in all I liked parts of this but it misses the energy of TOS; its heart, its exuberance and most of all its inherent silliness.
But the the few seconds of Bones here and there are priceless.

It helps if you think about the underlying themes of rebirth. The pace, the imagery, the whole feeling of stiff limbo. VGER is trying to be reborn, just as Bones, Spock and Kirk are trying to get their mojo back. By the end they all come back together after all the years apart and solve a classic TOS style plot, while becoming their old TOS selves. Then you can get into the following trilogy where the real good stuff waits.

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Sougouk said:

Mocata said:
Blow Out 4/5

You should check out the original British version, Blow-Up (1966).

May be in the minority on this but I think Blow Out is far superior.

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Watched Alien for the sixth time since I first got it on DVD, I don’t think Ridley Scott could possibly make a prequel even half as good as the first one. Which is not to say I think Covenant is a bad movie because I haven’t seen it (the only review I’ve read of it was the 4/4 star one on RogerEbert.com), I simply saw the first trailer and thought it looked trash so I avoided it.

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DominicCobb said:

Sougouk said:

Mocata said:
Blow Out 4/5

You should check out the original British version, Blow-Up (1966).

May be in the minority on this but I think Blow Out is far superior.

To each their own. Sadly, I’ve only seen Blow Out once. I’ll try to check it out again.

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Earl said:

Watched Alien for the sixth time since I first got it on DVD, I don’t think Ridley Scott could possibly make a prequel even half as good as the first one.

I knew that was the case when I learned Scott made the Space Jockeys giant bald Smurfs.

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I prefer this version of the Space Jockey:

and even if you’re not a fan of this design at least it accounts for the size of the Space Jockey unlike the Engineers in Prometheus who are like half the size

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I prefer any version of the Space Jockey that is actually, truly alien rather than some Blue Man Groupie in a Giger gimp suit.

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They are an off white marble sort of colour to resemble ancient Greek or Roman statues.

The stupid size and design problem from Prometheus is laughable though. Should have watched their own movie before making prequels… where have we heard that story before. I still remember this version:

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Logan (2017)

Great!

Having only seen the Black and White version, I have no desire to ever watch it in color. I feel like the color version would draw attention away from the character and towards the spilling of blood and whatnot. That, and the movie feels almost dreamlike, as if it, and Logan himself, has already faded into memory.

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Alien: Covenant (2017)

Not a fan of anything in the series since Resurrection (although Prometheus came close), but I quite enjoyed this. Had flaws, mostly in character decisions, but the film looked great, I liked the music, and the acting was strong, particularly Michael Fassbender in dual roles. I’d say it was pretty good.

6/10

Not enough people read the EU.

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Guardians of the Galaxy 2 (2017)

Alien Anthology Bluray - Theatrical version for all 4 movies (1979, 1986, 1992, 1997)
First time I’ve ever seen the first 3 Alien movies in their entirety.

Prometheus (2012)

Alien Covenant (2017)